Scarf Snow
by BananaPeaceMonkeyKarmi
Summary: In the event of connecting the snow to people, Tifa ends up realizing a lot of feelings--most of which are about a certain blonde friend.......


Hiyas!! I am posting another one-shot! Enjoy please!  
And if you don't, then you suck!

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As Tifa stood outside, she watched, for just a few minutes, the snow. She was just supposed to be taking the barrels of alcohol in to refill on some of her stocks. But, just for a few minutes, she decided to slow down. So, she watched the snow.

It reminded her of just how fragile things can get, and how pure they can start out. When a flake of snow first begins to fall, it is white and undefiled. It falls slowly, but steadily, down to the surfuce. _Just as the flakes, everything on this planet started out clean. And as they get older, just as the falke falls, they get closer to that one, if not many, impurities. When the flake touches the ground, it becomes dirty, and melts mostly. The ground represents that imperfectness. When people reach it, they get a taste of that sin or bad thing. The purity melts away._

She thought about herself. How she reached the ground a long while ago. She thought about how jealous she was of Aerith. How she let it get to her. _Why? Why couldn't I just let it go? Why did I let it get to me? Her and I could've been so much closer. I would've know her better if I just wasn't so . . ._ She looked down at the surface underneath her, sighing, shuffling her feet. Her breath made a slight fog in front of her eyes. It wasn't much, though; her scarf covered most of her mouth. Luckily she was dressed in warm enough clothes. Well, she was lucky Cloud made her anyway.

Cloud. The man that stayed with her and the kids. He was a person, the only person alive, from her childhood. They weren't exactly what you'd call friends back then. Tifa saw Cloud every now and then, and played with him when the other kids weren't watching. It pained her to this day to think of herself as one of those people she can't stand now. One of those people who are afraid or ashamed of the people they hang out with, so they don't tell others. After the whole bridge accident when she was eight, she really wanted to patch things up and tell him that she was sorry for being stuck up. The only problem was her father. He wanted her to stay away from him, because he blamed Cloud for her getting hurt. _It wasn't his fault that I'm an idiot. _She sighed again.

She always thought his name suit him well. Cloud Strife. He was something like a cloud, never in the same place. He was a very active person, Tifa thought. He couldn't stay around the same people all in the same place. He was a nomad, so to speak. Sure, he stayed with her and the kids, but he worked a lot. That was his getting out. At least he always came back. He figured out that his leaving hurt her more than it did the kids. That night after the third coming of Sephiroth, he told her he wouldn't leave again. And he has yet to break that promise.

Then there was his last name. He always thought he caused others' pain or agony. Yeah, he could be a real sulky bastard. Tifa laughed out loud thinking that. _He does get sulky. He's worst than me at my time of the month. _She laughed again. Cloud believed he caused the strife of the ones around him, but it wasn't true. To Tifa, he was the greatest thing besides the kids. He brought her joy just being there.

Maybe she was too attached. After her accident, wanting to be his friend had taken a big toll on her. Then there was his leaving for SOLDIER, which really made her sad. Nibelhiem was demolished--as far as they knew--and she thought she'd never see him again. When she found him in that alley, it was the happiest day of her life. Sure, he was hanging on by a limb, but that didn't matter--he was back in her life. That was the only important thing to her. When Aerith showed up, Tifa guessed she was so jealous because she was afriad. She was afraid Aerith would take Cloud away from her. Out of her life. She just wouldn't be able to deal with that. With him gone.

Tifa looked up into the sky once more. It was totally white, just like the flakes of snow dropping from it. She was so lost in thought that she didn't hear the door open and close behind her.

"What are you doing?"

The barmaid jumped at the sound of his voice. He was so calm, so relaxed at the moment. She rarely saw him like this. "Nothing. Just . . . analyzing the snow."

He cocked an eyebrow. "How do you do that?"

She told him everything about how the snow was pure until it hit the ground. She also gave him her analogy on people. When she was done, Cloud was silent. He walked forward a bit more to stand beside her. They both stared up for a few minutes. Then he spoke.

"Does that connect to you, too?"

Tifa looked over at him to see his attention still on the white canopy above them. She nodded, knowing that he saw her. Then she redirected her attention to the same thing as him. For a while, she wouldn't say anything. Eventually she summed up the courage to tell him all the things she had been thinking about during her time out here. About her jealousy towards the flower girl, about how she saw Cloud and the way he fit his name. She even told him something she wasn't expecting to slip from her mouth. She didn't know how long she'd been rambling until she noticed how red Cloud's neck had become when she looked back up at him.

"Are you cold?"

He shrugged. "A little. That's okay though. I'll be fine." When he averted his gaze to hers, his eyes were sparkling. "Thank you for telling me all of that Tifa. Now I know." He shifted a bit, then asked, "Can I share your scarf with you?"

Tifa nodded. She turned to him as he did the same to her. She held out the neck warmer, standing on the tips of her toes to reach behind him. When she was done, it was then that she noticed how close they were. She shivered a little, looking down at the ground. He bent his head too, and before they knew it, their foreheads were touching. His mouth was right above her nose; she could tell by the way his breath hit the top of it.

"So, I make you happy by just being here?"

A nod.

"And my leaving made you sad?"

Another nod.

"And . . . you love me?"

Tifa's head snapped up, but because of the close proximity they shared, her mouth met his. At first, she was surprised, her eyes wide open. Eventually, she wrapped her arms around his neck--around her scarf--and he snaked his around her waist. They stayed like this for a few minutes. Since being out here, she had never felt this warm. Actually, in all of her life, she had never been this warm, or felt this wanted. But here it was in her face that Cloud Strife was more than he appeared. She always thought he was. And she always knew that there was more inside of him then guilt and sadness. He could be happy. He could be angry.

And somehow, this told her that he could love, too.

He was the one who broke the kiss. She panted some, guessing he was growing short of breath as well. He held her close, their foreheads touching again. Tifa nodded once more.

"Good."

"Why is that a good thing?"

He chuckled, his hot breath hitting her nose again. She wrinkled it playfully, tilting her head up slightly to catch a brief kiss.

"Tifa," he said when she was done, " I don't really think you're an impure person. You are probably the most angelic being I've come across. I'll say adult, because Marlene and Denzel are still pretty innocent, too. It's just that . . .your love for me is the best thing ever. Want to know why?"

A nod.

"Guess."

"Do you . . . love me back?" She knew she was taking a risk with that question, despite the way she felt while kissing him.

His action surprised her though.

A nod.

A smile.

Another kiss as the snow fell around them to melt away later.

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